


Like No One Is Watching

by minxy



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-21
Updated: 2014-07-21
Packaged: 2018-02-09 19:01:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1994253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/minxy/pseuds/minxy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>'I’m dying,' he realized suddenly, but he had faith that Sam would have gotten the notes on the stone to the right people and Jack would have gotten them all home, now Teal’c had gone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Like No One Is Watching

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to betas [](http://rydra-wong.livejournal.com/profile)[**rydra_wong**](http://rydra-wong.livejournal.com/), [](http://kres.livejournal.com/profile)[**kres**](http://kres.livejournal.com/) and [](http://delphia2000.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://delphia2000.livejournal.com/)**delphia2000** , who helped so much.
> 
> This was written for settiai in the SG-1 team ficathon, the master list is here: http://sg1teamficathon.livejournal.com/2963.html

~~~

It was Sam’s voice that Daniel heard, he was pretty sure. Of course, he was also reasonably sure that Sam should be… somewhere else, so there was a good chance as well that she was a hallucination.

Trumping all these musings, though, was the overwhelming confusion about why a culture that seemed to be Central African in origin would be so adept at Chinese water torture.

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

_Sam? I thought you were with Jack? You need to get the data on the stone back through the gate, Sam._

~~~

“So,” Sam had said, “Talk to me, Daniel.”

It was the kind of opening she loved to give him and on missions like this, when he was so excited and Jack was so preoccupied with threats and timetables. Daniel would have melted with gratitude if he hadn’t been so buzzed on the implications of his find.

“Sam, this is incredible. This could be the Rosetta Stone of our time… and, I mean, the implications of this are astounding. Although it’s clearly moved from its original place, possibly tactically, it’s carefully guarded…”

“You do not feel that these free warriors seek to remove the local Goa’uld from power, then, Daniel Jackson?” Teal’c asked.

“Well, no, I’m sure they would like that ultimately, Teal’c, but their numbers are too few to really be attempting to overthrow anyone, and this seems like a long term operation, don’t you think? They might not even know what it says anymore. Look at the age on this…”

“I think what Daniel is saying is that they pick their battles, Teal’c.”

“What? Oh, yes, exactly… You know, Sam, this could be one of the greatest discoveries since we opened the Stargate.”

“You, Daniel.”

“What?”

“Since you opened the Stargate. So really, it could be the greatest discovery since your last great discovery? Is that what you’re saying?”

Sometimes, she got far too much joy out of ribbing him. Sam was lucky he was so focused on what he was already calling the Alien Rosetta Stone, or he’d have squinted in her general direction.

~~~

Warmth leeched out of Daniel in throbs syncopated to the tramping of Teal’c’s boots. To keep his eyes open was dizzying, but preferable to keen awareness of pain or what was possibly worse, no awareness of anything.

He was glad he’d finally cut his hair, so he could see well enough, hanging sideways over Teal’c’s shoulder, to give warning when he thought he saw a flash of metal in the otherwise damp green forest.

Teal’c reacted quickly and found a defensible position that involved placing Daniel under a bush and dripping water. He couldn’t see much but Teal’c, though Teal’c in full battle mode was something to see and the lightshow could have easily been mesmerizing.

Like the water falling on his face. Mesmerizing.

He found breath for his voice and stuttered through the radio that they were taking cover and taking fire.

A few minutes later Sam asked in a crackled and panting voice, “I’d estimate by this time at a slower pace you’d made it to the valley and turned, possibly half a klick in from the turn. Does that sound right to Teal’c, Daniel?”

Flipping his staff weapon and firing at their left flank, Teal’c roared an affirmative.

Daniel chokingly relayed that information, but it caused him to cough and that seized his muscles and battered midsection and he decided that talking was overrated. It was also getting progressively more difficult to focus on Teal’c, but given the persistence of the pain radiating through his body with each breath and the cold of the rain falling in drips and spikes, there were worse things than passing out.

~~~

The storm rolled over them in waves of white noise and varying pressure. The rain could be felt, but not seen until it gathered on leaves, pooled and ran in rivulets that poured into the already saturated air.

Daniel stared at the sky until it suddenly became ground.

Then noise roared in with the pull on his wound and Daniel heard his radio, or Teal’c’s radio, call Jack’s harsh breath and voice.

“Jack,” Daniel croaked into his vest and Teal’s shoulder as he fumbled for the radio’s button to let himself be heard, “Jack, Sam has the rubbings from the stone, those have to get through the gate.”

“Goddamn it, Daniel, enough about the stone! How the hell did you get hit?”

“Tree turned on me.” He mumbled, bumping up against Teal’c’s shoulder; the trees had turned on him again and were upside down.

“Teal’c,” came Sam’s voice through the channel, “we have no access to your position. There is a valley looks to be 1-2 klicks ahead to your left that will bring you around to the side of the Stargate in good cover.”

“Understood. I am unable to make very quick time. However, I do not believe it safe to stop and tend the injury.”

“Acknowledged, we’ll lead them down the other side of this ridge. Get to the gate.”

~~~

“Daniel,” Jack entered the cave with silent footsteps and a large shadow, “Finish those drawings double time. Jaffa presence is increasing this way. We have got to get a move on.”

“Rubbings.”

“What?”

“Can’t we just hole up here, sneak out later?”

“The Colonel is right, Daniel, our tracks will lead them right to this cave and the stone if we aren’t careful.”

“Let me just do one more video pass.”

“I shall remove the evidence of our presence here.”

“Daniel, we have exactly no time for dallying.”

~~~

Daniel was lying the way he had when he watched Sha’re die, Teal’c standing over them, weapon in hand and apology instant.

“Aaaaaah, Teal’c, this is not a clean wound. Splinters and … Jesus! You could kill a vampire with a piece of wood that size.”

“I am unfamiliar with the battle strategies employed against such an enemy.”

Only she had said her goodbyes. Gotten the information to him that her son needed protection, then lay with him as she died. He had laid beside her then, as Teal’c and Sam knelt beside him now.

He would have cursed, but the harsh cold of rain falling on his side, and the added shooting, surging pain stabbing toward his diaphragm every time Sam prodded the open wound took away his ability to yell properly.

“Well, when we get home…” Sam’s voice was a little shaky, “Janet can clean these out, hook Daniel up with some really nice drugs and you and I will explore the wide world of vampire movies.”

“Indeed.”

~~~

“I’m nearly there with only approximately 4-5 in pursuit. What is your situation?”

“Reinforcements continue to arrive, though we remain protected and I believe your access remains available.”

“Confirm you are on the same side of the river as the Stargate and backed up against a rock outcropping.”

“Confirmed. Your medical assistance with Daniel Jackson is needed urgently, Captain Carter.”

“There are two more on your left flank, Teal’c, I can’t take them all down on the move like this.”

“I shall meet you approximately half the distance and assist you.”

“Daniel will be alright on his own?”

“He is well concealed, but I believe his awareness of his surroundings is inconsistant.”

Which was not true. There was water dripping on Daniel. He was keenly aware of that.

~~~

It was Daniel’s luck to defy odds and be the one who got hit.

In his defense, though, that Jaffa had hit a nearby tree. The shot had merely ricocheted off the target, along with the assorted splinters and wood spikes and landed somewhere in the vicinity of Daniel’s left kidney.

All of which he had plenty of time to consider while he and Teal’c (who had unfortunately tried to catch him as he fell) slid through mud and shale off the ridge they’d all been running on. Jack and Sam were at a full run when Daniel went down and he could no longer see them in his limited view of the ridge above, which was just as well; the Jaffa would be all over that area in a minute, and the stone was more important.

Daniel turned to look for Teal’c just as the pain in his side began to make itself felt, blooming angrily in radiating throbs straight through his midsection. There were worse things than being alone at this moment, and he hoped that Teal’c and Jack and Sam were in better shape than he, wherever they were.

~~~

“Talk to me, Daniel.” She was always saying that.

“Did you get the data through the gate, Sam?”

“Jesus, Daniel, you have a one track mind.” Jack would say.

“Well, technically you had the camcorder so we had to come back for you, right?”

“What is written on that stone, anyway, makes it so damned important to you?”

“It doesn’t really matter what is written.” he would say long-sufferingly. “The point is there are at least 6 different languages and they look to be telling the same story, which would mean …”

“Wait, so it could be a dirty limerick?”

“The universe’s most widely distributed romance novel?”

“How are you feeling, Daniel Jackson?”

Thank God for Teal’c, Teal’c would make them behave even if no one else could.

~~~

“Teal’c?” Daniel’s words sounded off. A soft edge on normally harsh consonants.

“Yes, Daniel.” Teal’c said, as they crouched at the edge of the tree line. Daniel felt the muscles tight under his ribs, the high adrenaline pulsing through Teal’c like pain pulsed through him.

“I didn’t mean to get shot. Tell Jack.”

“You did nothing to place yourself in danger any greater than the rest of us faced; O’Neill knows this.”

“He asked what I did.”

“He knows you are a competent soldier, Daniel Jackson. His words perhaps reflected his anger that you have had to become one.”

“Different languages. All mean the same thing.”

Teal’c didn’t answer him, so Daniel said, stickily, “It’s like the Rosetta Stone, Teal’c.”

“We must go now, Daniel Jackson.”

~~~

Daniel came to with only a view of sky and shrub and sharp outcroppings of rock. He couldn’t hear anything but the roar of a storm, couldn’t see anything clearly.

He had a vague sensation of chill married to a sharp burning ice in his side. Felt rain pelt his face in sheets of cold, creeping through the fabric of his clothes.

 _I’m dying,_ he realized suddenly, but he had faith that Sam would have gotten the notes on the stone to the right people and Jack would have gotten them all home, now Teal’c had gone.

He heard the rhythmic tramping of multiple boots coming towards him, _but,_ he thought, _there are worse things than dying._

~~~

Teal’c had killed Sha’re with one shot. Not to wound. To kill quickly and cleanly. As he killed his own kinsman, just now. Protecting him.

“Right. Daniel gets adrenaline and we stop the bleeding and we get home.” She sounded worried about something. Shaky. “That is my professional field medic opinion.”

“I suggest we move quickly before more Jaffa arrive.”

Sha’re had said her good-byes. Said them to Daniel. Daniel had said that he loved her too. Couldn’t reach out, though, couldn’t move to save her or comfort her or make the nightmare disappear…

“Right, it’s actually not far to the tree line near the gate. When we get there, hang back for a ten-count while I head for the DHD.”

“What of O’Neill?”

She hadn’t died alone. Daniel was there. She had conveyed the information about the boy to Daniel, but on the whole, now he thought about it, Daniel considered that maybe the not-dying-alone part had been the more important gift to Sha’re. She had, after all, understood Teal’c’s actions long before Daniel would.

“He’ll be watching for us. And we’ll give him a heads up over the radio”

~~~

Jack had a ridiculous obsession with cake. Especially when one of them was in the infirmary and unable to stand to be hugged properly and thus relieve Jack of some of his giddiness. It was a hugging-substitute.

It would be over a piece of completely contraband for invalids cake that Daniel would thank Jack for disregarding his request that the data on the Alien Rosetta Stone be preserved preferentially. Jack would never understand the importance of the Rosetta Stone; after all, it had effectually, been a list of tax reforms. Tax reforms that later would bridge time and cultures, allow the understanding of hieroglyphs and become the first building blocks of Daniels’ field, but tax reforms nonetheless. Perhaps he would value it because Daniel valued it, at least when they weren’t under enemy fire. There were worse ways to come to respect something.

And perhaps Daniel would not understand why the entire team would risk their individual and collective safety just for him, but he was grateful nonetheless that they provided what he needed and got him home. And perhaps that was the greater gift than simply getting the data home. Perhaps his own life was something he would come to value because they did.

Perhaps.

If they were home.

~~~

Sam darted out the 20 feet to the DHD ahead of Daniel and Teal’c, under the cover of rain and a sharpshooter 50 yards off their position behind the Stargate.

As Sam dialed, Teal’c ran with Daniel across his shoulders and hit the ground hard with each step, the force of all of it drumming into Daniel with relentless thoroughness. Daniel privately noted that in the future he would ask Sam to not dress the wound so nicely, or maybe nix the adrenaline; he would have preferred to spend the trip home thoroughly passed out.

He supposed that Sam had already sent the iris code through, because he and Teal’c hit the event horizon at Teal’c’s fastest pace, covered by Jack and Sam from the DHD and the side of the Gate. The sensation of melting into the wormhole was strangely akin to passing out.

~~~

“Daniel?” a woman was saying, he was pretty sure it was Sam. “Talk to me, Daniel…”

~~ _end_ ~~  
.


End file.
